CLIMATE CHANGE IN CRUZ COUNTRY

'The grass is gone': Texas drought means more cattle facing slaughter

Wed, August 24, 2022 

STORY: The Caney Creek Ranch is about halfway between Houston and Dallas, and owner Wesley Ratcliff and his herd are weathering a hot, dry summer.

Texas, the nation's top beef-producing state, is in the grips of a drought that's forcing ranchers such as Ratcliff to pick between the raising cows, or slaughtering them.

Ratcliff has already begun to cull, selling fifty animals from his 500-head herd earlier this year.

"They were older mama cows and they might have gone and had another her baby for us. But rather than wait on them to have another baby, we went on to ship them to the, to the meat factory and I call it a meat factory to make it sound good.”

Since mid-July, more than 93 percent of Texas was in drought, ranging from moderate to exceptional drought, according to the United States Drought Monitor.

Exceptional drought - or D4, the highest level - is classified by widespread loss of pastures and crops as well as water shortages in reservoirs, streams and wells creating emergencies. As of the middle of August, more than a quarter of Texas was in exceptional drought.

And you see that playing out here, at the East Texas Livestock Auction in Crockett.

"the grass is gone. The cows are beginning to lose weight. The cows are weak because there's no protein. So we're getting rid of a lot of cows.”

Paul Craycraft is a co-owner of this auction. He said in normal times, most of the cows bought here are put to pasture, with just a minority going to the slaughterhouse. But the drought changed that.

"Normally, you'll see maybe 40 percent of the cows in the sale will be slaughtered, or maybe 30percent. As it is, 75 percent for the last two months are going to slaughter. They're not going back home because home has no grass."

More cows sold to slaughter means fewer mature cows birthing calves. Texas accounts for as much as 14 percent of the U.S. cattle herd, and, one way or another, consumers are going to feel the effects of the drought at the butcher shop and grocery store.

David Anderson is an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University.

“The pressure will be on for higher prices, higher cattle prices, higher beef prices, over the next several years as the effects of this are felt. And so, you know, from a consumer standpoint, we're going to face tighter supplies of beef and tighter supplies of beef with nothing else going on means higher prices.”

Despite the hardship, Wesley Ratcliff keeps in mind this isn't his first drought.

“We had a drought in 2011 and people dropped out of the industry. [edit] I sold a few cows in 2011. I didn't sell a lot of them and I was so glad I didn't because when the market picked back up, I was able to sell cows that I wouldn't have been able to sell for the price that I was getting for."

He says he'll again try and buckle down, and pray for rain.